The Contemporary American Novel in Context

Like others in the publisher's Texts and Contexts series, this text is intended as a clear, concise, accessible introduction to a literary field, in this case, the contemporary American novel. The three authors are affiliated with Loughborough U., UK, and their text is written for British students, although American students might sit up and take notice of interesting outsider perspectives on the culture they inhabit. Coverage begins with social, cultural, literary, and intellectual contexts. Following are chapters on texts including American Psycho, Beloved, The Human Stain, Blood Meridian, Jasmine, and Cosmopolis, among others. Concluding chapters address afterlives and adaptations, and critical approaches. Each chapter includes a review of key points and suggestions for reading and research. Annotation c2013 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Andrew Dix is Lecturer in American Studies at Loughborough University, UK. He is the author of Beginning Film Studies (Manchester University Press, 2008) and co-editor of Figures of Heresy: Radical Theology in English and American Writing, 1800-2000 (Sussex Academic Press, 2006); his other published work includes book chapters on Mark Twain, John Steinbeck and Native American fiction.Brian Jarvis is Senior Lecturer in American Literature and Film at Loughborough University, UK. He is the author of Postmodern Cartographies: The Geographical Imagination in Contemporary American Culture (Pluto, 1998) and Cruel and Unusual: A Cultural History of Punishment in America (Pluto, 2004) and of essays on topics including 'dirty realism', Vietnam War fiction, the literature and cinema of 9/11, and contemporary horror film.Paul Jenner is Lecturer in American Studies at Loughborough University, UK. He is currently working on a full-length study of the American philosopher Stanley Cavell, and his other research interests include American noir fiction, and theories and fictions of postmodernity.